Report Finds NIH’s AIDS Research Agency ‘Troubled Organization’

WASHINGTON — The government’s AIDS research agency “is a troubled organization” and its managers have engaged in unnecessary feuding, sexually explicit language and other inappropriate conduct that hampers its global fight against the disease, an internal review found.

The review for the National Institutes of Health director’s office, obtained by The Associated Press, substantiates many of the concerns that whistle-blower Dr. Jonathan Fishbein raised about the agency’s AIDS research division and its senior managers.

The division suffers from “turf battles and rivalries between physicians and Ph.D scientists” and the situation has been “rife for too long,” the report concluded.

Nonetheless, the NIH formally fired Fishbein on Friday, over the objections of several members of Congress. The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee are protesting, saying the firing was an example of whistle-blower punishment.

“Retaliation against an employee for reporting misconduct or voicing concerns is unacceptable, illegal and violates the Whistleblower Protection Act,” Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., wrote the NIH late last week.

“Moreover, it would have a chilling effect on other NIH employees who might makes truthful but critical comments about the NIH,” the senators said.

Citing personnel privacy, NIH officials declined to address the senators’ letter or Fishbein’s termination, except to say that his last day was Friday. In the past, NIH officials have said they were terminating Fishbein for poor performance.

Fishbein, an accomplished private sector safety expert, was hired by the NIH in 2003 to improve the safety of its AIDS research.

He alleges that he was let go because he raised concerns about several studies and filed a formal complaint against one of the division’s managers alleging sexual harassment and hostile workplace.

In a series of recent stories, the AP has reported:

* One of NIH’s AIDS study in Africa violated federal safety regulations.

* Senior NIH managers engaged in sexually explicit pranks and sent expletive-laced e-mails to subordinates.

* NIH-funded researchers used foster children to test AIDS drugs since the late 1980s.

An internal report, written on Aug. 9, 2004, by a special adviser to NIH chief Elias A. Zerhouni but never made public, raised concerns that the NIH’s efforts to fire Fishbein at the very least gave the “appearance of reprisal.”

The report says no documentation was ever provided to Fishbein suggesting poor performance until after he complained about the safety in one sensitive AIDS study and filed a formal complaint alleging that the division’s deputy director was acting unprofessionally with subordinates.

For more information, visit National Institutes of Health: www.nih.gov